The only constant in marketing is change.

Take your pick: consumer behaviour, new business models, technology. I bet one of these are disrupting marketing in your industry right now. The task of the modern marketeer to keep up with change (with a view to find competitive advantage by being ahead of this evolutionary curve) seems a full-time occupation. More importantly, where do you schedule your marketing budgets to get the best returns in the upcoming financial year? It’s just gazing into a magic ball.

Over the past week I’ve read 20 ‘top ten 2015 marketing trend’ kind of articles, and have compiled an overview on what’s mentioned the most in the the world of marketing. Not surprisingly, there is clear consensus amongst marketing bloggers and commentators on the important trends emerging this year. He’s the leaderboard:

Content Marketing

85%

Personalisation

45%

Video Content (Unique)

35%

Real Time Marketing (Agile Marketing)

30%

Mobile and Responsive Design

25%

Visual Markering / Visual Storytelling Brand

20%

Paid Social Media

20%

Big Data / Data Driven Marketing

10%

Paid Search / Demographic Targeting

5%

Programmatic

5%

Miscellaneous

10%

“It’s an undeniably tired cliché but one that is, quite honestly, more valid than ever. Insightful content marketing has always been a point of emphasis and it will remain a strategic theme heading into 2015. “— Dean Ara

Five pretty obvious winners in this analysis, and more than likely should form parts of your mix this year until 2016:

Create a clear and structured program to create compelling content and publish it widely. Don’t fall for the keyword-rich link bait (very successful) strategy of the past. Rather think about your audience and create great narratives that tie back to your product or service on topics your customers care about.

Personalisation has been on the marketing trend radar for a number of years and will remain for a while. For personalisation to work it have to be pervasive throughout your services, products and systems – and therefore incredibly hard to achieve. In my experience treating each and every customer as an individual is a solid strategy.

Video Content arrives back on the top lists. Consumption of video is increasing with platforms focussing a richer content. Examples are everywhere: Facebook autoplay – video in Instagram – Vine. At the same time 4G and higher capacity bandwidth makes consumption of video content quicker. So start planning your budgets and 2015 schedule now. Great videos = big investment + time + planning.

Real-time marketing. Having a creative social team ready to jump into trending global conversations. Reading deeper into the area you’ll find that a clear brand and strategy is the most important first step in getting into agile marketing. Knowing how to respond and engage is more important than responding in and of itself.

And finally making sure that all your investment in these areas can be consumed on the devices your customer is using.

For anyone interested in further reading in this area I suggest the following five kick-ass articles: